


Roll for Romance

by orphan_account



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crushes, F/M, First Dates, Romance, They are all nerds who play DnD together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22278139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: New in town and University, Veronica wants to join a book club to find people with similar interests and maybe make some friends. It doesn't really work out that way.
Relationships: John Deacon/Veronica Tetzlaff
Kudos: 9
Collections: Johnica Week 2020





	Roll for Romance

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Johnica Week and the Prompt: Party.   
> Disclaimer: I usually don't Play DnD but Pathfinder and never in english so it might not be super accurate but I tried.

Veronica opened the door to the common room, balancing her bottle and the extra books that hadn’t fit into her bag anymore in her arms. She was already late and felt awful about it but the lesson had dragged on for longer than she expected and until she had found her way to the common room where the meeting for the Book Club, she was way too late.

As she rushed into the room, she wasn’t faced with a group of people discussing books but instead five guys sitting around a table decked out with papers and pens, a screen of some kind of screen separating a part of the table from the rest. Veronica stopped dead in her tracks. Her bottle finally won the battle against her and dropped to the ground. 

“Ah, sh- Um, sorry, I thought the book club was meeting today?” 

She stopped the bottle from rolling away with her foot, clutching her books to her chest. 

The guys couldn’t be any more mismatched. One of them was dressed more fitting for some nightclub or fashion show than a common room in an university. His dark hair was framing his face, the eyes standing out thanks to a generous amount of kohl accentuating them. Another one of them was dressed somewhat similar but yet not at all because he looked like the complete opposite of the first guy with his blond hair and bright blue eyes. The other three were all dressed more “normal”, even if the guy with the brown hair was wearing a knitted sweater vest which was not something she would have thought to see anyone wearing at this age and day. The last two guys had dark hair, one long and curly, the other short and straight, neatly combed. 

Veronica couldn’t even guess what they were doing here. 

“Yes, originally, but Mary Austin asked us if she could have Tuesdays instead of Fridays, so we swapped days. So it’s the same time, just a different day.” 

She stopped for a moment, mentally going through her schedule and grimaced when she realized she wouldn’t be able to attend any meetings because she would be in class then. Veronica sighed and blew a strand of hair out her face. 

“Alright, sorry, I’ll be off then. Thank you.” 

The next bus that drove into the direction of her apartment was coming in an hour. She could find something to do in this hour, though. There was always something to do after all. 

“Oh, don’t let us chase us away!” The guy with the long black hair said. “Sit down and get comfortable if you want to.” 

The university had many common rooms all over campus so she could find another one to do whatever she was going to do to pass the hour but the room was big enough for them and her without getting in each other way, even if it wasn’t the biggest common room around. She nodded thankfully and finally got rid of the things in her hands by putting them down on one of the two other tables. The curly haired guy got up and picked up her water bottle, holding out for her. 

“Thank you.” 

She settled down at the table, rummaging through her stuff to find her notebook, searching for something to do to pass the time. The year had just started a week ago and there were no essays to write yet, no presentations to prepare just now and so she was stuck with flipping through her textbooks. 

It wasn’t really interesting nor what she had hoped to do with her day. Still, it was way better than wandering around campus without having anything to do. 

The guys were going back to whatever they were doing, papers rustling and pens scratching, pages being flipped. She wished she had brought her headphones but they were most likely still lying on her bedside table. They weren’t loud at all but she felt as if she was intruding something despite having every reason being here. 

“So, I was thinking about a druid.” 

“Again?” 

Somebody laughed then and more joined in and Veronica looked up shortly. The guy with the short black hair was shaking his head but also smiling as he grabbed a book, opening it on a marked page. 

“Okay, druid it is. Which race? And keep in mind, we’re doing a pretty combat heavy campaign. Just for your background and all.” 

She still had no idea what they were talking about. The brown haired guy had noticed her staring. He was smiling, though, and Veronica blushed, quickly looking away. 

Her mother had always told her staring was rude and she should never do it. Manners had always been the most important thing to her and Veronica had grown up with her breathing down her neck to make sure she was the proper and polite daughter she had always wanted. Even now, after moving out and starting her own life in London, her mother’s words rang after her and she found herself correcting her behaviour to please her mother despite her not being here. 

“-because I’m always the one who has to do heavy hitting! The only one! Because you guys alway want to play rogues and mages and shit.” The blond one complained. “Maybe I want to play a mage for once!”

“Do you want to play a mage?” The guy with the long black hair asked, propping his elbows onto the table and resting his chin on his hands. 

“Fuck no!”

“Why do you complain about it, then?” Curly haired guy asked.

Veronica had been re-reading the same page for a while now, too distracted by the guys and intrigued by what they were doing. 

“Hey, do you want to play, too?” 

It was the brown haired guy who called over to her. It had caught the other guys’ attention, too, and they looked back and forth between them. 

“I have no idea what you are doing.” She admitted. 

“Dungeons and Dragons.” All of them answered, the words quickly becoming a jumble of sounds but it was somehow still clear enough for her to understand what they were saying.

She had a vague idea what that was, only from some throw-away mentions from TV or some people she had been hanging out with but she had no real knowledge about it. She told them as much. What followed was an explanation- admittedly, a bad one because everyone starting talking all over each other and kept interrupting- but Veronica got a better idea of what it actually was. Not a good one but it was something. 

“We could always need another player. If you want to, you can try it.” 

Veronica looked back to her textbook. She hadn’t comprehended anything from the page- hadn’t even tried to if she was being honest- sighed, then closed it and got up. They made enough space for another chair and cleared off a little bit of the table. 

“I’m Jim, by the way.” Short, straight black haired guy introduced himself. “And those are Freddie, Roger, Brian and John.” 

“My name’s Veronica.” 

As it turned out, Dungeons and Dragons- or DnD as they kept calling it- was way more complicated than she ever thought it would be. Her head was spinning with all these options for races and classes and many other things Jim was explaining to her now. 

“It’s alright if you don’t understand everything just yet. You’ll get there with time.” Freddie assured her. 

Veronica didn’t even know if she was going to take the time she might need to understand everything. She hadn’t anticipated this at all. Her day had started out with her firmly believing she was going to joining a book club, not doing this. She had planned on joining some kind of club at university because it would help her making friends with people with similar interests outside of her classes. But since she couldn’t join the book club now, she might as well find something new. If this new thing in question was this, she didn’t know yet. It might as well be. 

“Okay, easy thing first: Which race do you want?” 

“Uh, elf maybe?” 

Jim flipped through a book- the rulebook, she was told- and when he found what he had been looking for, he pushed it towards her. She read over the part he pointed out to her which explained to her how elves worked in this. 

“There are also half elves, just on the other page.” 

She hummed absently, already busy reading. Jim seemed to be happy with that and went back to talk to Freddie about his character idea. It helped a little bit so Veronica understood somewhat more and afterwards she read the text about half elves, too and decided she liked them way more. Jim was still busy with Freddie and she waited awkwardly, holding the book open at the page. 

“Did you pick something?” 

John had noticed her looking like she didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to do now. It wasn’t far off from the truth, honestly. She felt kind of lost in the midsts of all this. There was just so many things and Veronica had no idea where to even begin. 

“Yeah, half elf?”

It sounded more like a question, her voice trailing up at the end and she searched for any sign that she was doing something wrong. 

“Alright, solid choice, do you need help with the classes?” He asked. 

“Yes, please.” 

John chuckled lowly and tugged on the book so she would let it go and turned a few pages. 

“Do you want something that’s more combat, heavy-hitting, or more range or maybe magic?” 

She looked at him helplessly, shrugging and John smiled and nodded. Veronica chuckled, feeling somewhat embarrassed. It was stupid because she knew nothing about DnD so of course she had no idea about anything, really. There was nothing to be embarrassed about because why should she know stuff about something she never dabbled in? 

He didn’t seem to hold it against her- because there was nothing to hold against her, she told herself- and started explaining the classes to her. She tried following it all but it was a lot. Thankfully, he didn’t mind when she asked question after question, willing to explain things several times. He really went into the details, spelling out the pros and cons of all classes for her. 

“I guess I’m playing a fighter. Someone has to be able to do some damage.” Roger said, shrugging. “Hey, Deaks, pass the rulebook real quick, I want to check something.” 

John rolled his eyes but did as he was asked. 

“I can play a damage class.” Veronica said. 

She kind of sold herself to joining this group. This game sounded like fun and Fridays were the only days she really had time for any clubs activities. The university had many clubs and she had chosen the book club because the timing had just been too good to pass up. She adored reading and doing so with other people and exchanging thoughts sounded like fun to her. This wasn’t reading and she didn’t understand this at all yet but it had something that intrigued her. 

Roger grinned at her. 

“Oh, look, someone who wants the party to survive for once! I like her already, you all can suck it. Veronica is my best friend for this campaign now.” 

Freddie and Brian rolled their eyes at the blond but in a fond way, giving themselves away with their smiles. Jim was looking like someone who was used to this whole spiel and happy yet looking already done. She had no idea what the correct reaction to this was so she just smiled at Roger and then turned back to John. 

“I guess, I’m a damage class then?” 

“Rog, give back the book, we have to talk damage classes!” 

Roger laughed and winked at Veronica, making her laugh, and gave back the rulebook. John flicked at his nose, missing by a mile but the blond waggled his eyebrows and blew him a kiss which only made John chuckle lowly as he shook his head. 

“But only because it’s for Veronica!” 

In the end, she went with a cleric of the light domain. There had been so many things to choose from- domains, armor, weapons and all these little extras- it made her head spin. All of them helped her, giving her tips on what she should choose but leaving the ultimate decision up to her, even if it was something they wouldn’t suggest her to choose. Afterwards, she listened to the others creating their characters. 

Brian was playing as an elf druid with a badger companion Nobody seemed surprised by that- in fact, Jim said it before Brian could and the curly haired man blushed before clearing his voice and agreeing, continuing on as if nobody had said anything. 

They must be friends for a while already, Veronica assumed. 

John made a human artificer and it was only thanks to Jim passing her the rulebook to read that she understood what John was saying. She understood what fighters, rogues and rangers and all these things were- she wasn’t stupid and read a lot of fantasy books- and it wasn’t too hard to get the gist of some more specific classes but she had never heard of an artificer before. 

Freddie’s character was a tiefling bard which seemed fitting for what she had gotten from Freddie’s personality so far. He obviously had put a lot of thought into his character’s looks, too, going on for a while to describe the exact shape his horns had. It was somewhat adorable, seeing how excited he was as he gestured wildly. 

Roger played as a dwarf fighter because- in his words- it was the best combination of all and he had expected to be the only heavy hitter on the group. He did shoot her a thankful look, though before going fully into the description of his character. 

Jim, who was their DM as it looked like, then told them about the setting of their game and it was then that Veronica knew she wouldn’t miss the book club all that much. By the time Jim was giving out sheets so they could build their characters backgrounds, hours had passed and she hadn’t even really noticed. 

After this, they rolled their stats which were explained to her in detail and Jim helped her where to put what stat where. She didn’t quite get what the numbers meant exactly just yet but she was assured she would with time. There was a lot of more maths and adding numbers to the character sheet they had gotten. 

“We’ll meet again next week for the first actual game but please tell me about your backgrounds at least on the day before. Veronica, can I add you to the group chat?” 

She gave him her number and was quickly added to a group chat with the other guys. She saved the numbers into her phone and so did they.

“I can send you some links that explain things, if you want me to.” Jim offered as they packed their things together. 

“That would be useful, thank you.” 

Jim smiled at her and Veronica smiled back. They said their goodbyes and she gathered her things again, carefully putting her papers between the pages of one of her textbooks so they didn’t get crumbled. 

Freddie, Jim and John left in the same direction as her and they kept an easy stream of chatter between them. Veronica couldn’t help but smile as she listened to them, occasionally joining in with her own short remarks. Freddie hugged her when they had to part ways, Jim and John waved after her. 

She didn’t even mind having to wait another twenty minutes for her bus. 

+++

“Make a persuasion check.” 

Roger groaned but grabbed his die, shaking them in his hands before letting it roll. Veronica watched with one hand clamped over her mouth, her face hurting from laughter. Freddie wasn’t fairing much better as it looked like, his shoulders shaking with mirth. They exchanged a look, both of them breaking into a new fit of laughter that infected Brian and John, too. 

“Uh, 13?” Roger said. “Is that enough?” 

He shot them a quick look, desperately trying to keep it stern but it only lasted about a second before he started laughing, too. Jim was the only one who was halfways composed but he was also giggling as he went through his notes. 

“Alright, then.” He said, clearing his throat and slipping back into his DM voice. “The guard looks kind of weirded out by you, eyeing you up and down, but eventually nods and lets you all pass.” 

Jim then launched into a description of the town and Veronica quickly composed herself and made some notes of things she thought might be important. 

John, who was sitting next to her, opened a new bottle of water and when he noticed her looking, he offered it to her first. 

“Thank you.” She murmured, not wanting to interrupt the DM and took the offered bottle. 

“You’re welcome.”

+++

Roger, Brian and John were waiting in front of the lecture hall and Veronica smiled when she saw them, squeezing past other students. 

“Hey, Veronica! How was class?” Roger greeted her, pulling her into a half hug. 

She hugged Brian, too, having to go on her tiptoes to be able to wrap her arms around his neck and then she hugged John. It might just be her imagination but she thought maybe the hug lingered just a little bit longer than usual. 

“It was nice. A bit boring.” 

They had planned to take advantage of the good weather, holding this week’s session outside in a little secluded seating area. It was probably a stupid idea and they all knew it but the idea had come up and they kept joking about it and now they were doing it. 

It proved to be an awful idea because it was windy and the table was way smaller than they thought it would be and they basically were sitting squished together. Nobody could sit next to Jim- for obvious reasons- so they only had one measly bench to sit on. 

John’s thigh was pressed up against hers and she could feel the warmth of his skin seep through the fabric of her skirt. She couldn’t move without brushing up against him. It made her blush madly and she just hoped it could be played off as coming from all the laughing. 

Veronica had no idea when this little crush had started but it was a thing now and she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with it now. Sure, John was nice to her but he seemed like the guy who was nice to everyone. She wasn’t special in this regard. She wasn’t special at all, in fact. 

There was absolutely no reason for him to like her in any other way than a platonic one. Which was fine. She could live with that. Maybe. If John would just stop moving and knocking their arms together. It wasn’t his fault and Veronica felt bad about getting a little bit frustrated with him because he wasn’t even doing anything. 

“I’ll cast fireball against the owlbear.” She said when it was her turn in combat. 

John gave her a thankful smile as his character had been quite knocked around by the monster which was now distracted by Veronica’s character. She smiled back, ignoring the way her heart fluttered. 

+++

Veronica had no idea what time it was, she only knew it was late and she was tired. They had assembled at Freddie’s and Jim’s apartment, sitting on the floor around the new battle map Jim had bought for a weekend full of dungeon crawling.

She couldn’t feel her left leg below the knee. It had fallen asleep about an hour ago and by now she really didn’t want to stand up, dreading the inevitable pins and needles that would bring. 

Roger yawned loudly, almost knocking into Veronica as he did so. Jim followed, then Brian and John and then all of them were yawning. 

Veronica slumped a little bit, closing her eyes for just a moment while Freddie charmed his way into the hearts of the noblemen. John’s shoulder proved to be a pretty comfortable pillow for her head. 

“Ronnie, hey, we’re done for today.” 

She flinched, sitting upright suddenly and groaned at the stiffness in her neck. Blinking blearily, she looked up at John. 

“Did I fall asleep?” 

“A little bit.” 

A blush rose on her cheeks and she rubbed her neck, awkwardly clearing her throat. John smiled at her. He got up with a low groan and held out a hand to help her up. Her leg didn’t appreciate it and she winced, pinching her calf and immediately regretting it. She hissed and squeezed John’s hand. 

“You okay?” 

She nodded and let go of him with an apologetic smile, carefully stepping over the miniatures and the battle map. She stretched, frowning when her spine popped loudly. 

“Oh, I heard that.” Freddie said, face contorted in empathy. 

Veronica laughed quietly as she squatted down again to help cleaning up the room, grabbing the empty chip bags and used cups and brought them into the kitchen. John followed not long afterwards, carrying several plates. 

“Where’s the dishwasher?” She asked him. 

“They have none. Just put it in the sink for now. We’ll take care of it tomorrow.” 

The idea didn’t really appear to her, she would rather take care of it now but she also didn’t want to do dishes now at all. So she only nodded and put the cups into the sink and threw the bags in the trash. Brushing off some crumbs from her shirt, she checked the clock. Just past three in the morning. She groaned. 

“Ronnie, you get the sofa!” Jim yelled from the living room. 

“Thanks! Appreciate it!” 

She could faintly hear Roger mock-complaining about her being favoritized and she rolled her eyes, barely suppressing a grin. 

“I’m glad you could make it.” John said. 

He wasn’t directly looking at her, rummaging through the fridge instead but he glanced at her quickly. 

“So am I!” She admitted. 

There had been so many essay deadlines and presentations she had to deliver in the past week and Veronica hadn’t been sure if she could come. Honestly, there was still a lot of things to do but she decided she deserved a break. 

“We probably would have died without you.” 

She chuckled and knocked their shoulders together. 

“You would have.” 

“We are very cocky today, aren’t we?” John gasped, his wide grin betraying his hurt and betrayed voice. 

Veronica bit her lip, unable to not smile back at him and then shook her head slightly. She also didn’t know where this suddenly came from. John was chuckling and pulled out two cups of yoghurt from wherever they had been hidden inside the fridge. 

“Late night snack?” He asked. 

“Yes, always. I get the spoons, you hide the food from Rog.” 

+++

“I can’t buy them.” 

She stared at the dice displayed in front of her. They were beautiful, yellow with white in a marble effect and Veronica really wanted them. 

“Why not?” John asked, effortlessly looking over her shoulder. 

“I didn’t came here to buy anything.” 

That was true. John had asked her if she wanted to go to the comic book store. He said he needed a certain color for a new miniature he was painting and she hadn’t seen any reason to not come along. 

“Just because you didn’t plan to buy anything doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to buy anything.” 

Veronica turned her head to look back at him over her shoulder. He looked amused, a grin tugging on the corner of his mouth. She looked back to the dice and bit her lip. 

“I already have a pair of dice.” 

She did. Right after the first playing session, she had ordered the dice she needed. It was a simple pair, just simple black dice and they were nice but they weren’t pretty like those were. 

“Yeah, and? Have you seen Freddie’s dice bag? He has so many dice! Probably more than any of us combined. Brian has quite the collection, too.” 

He wasn’t wrong. Freddie had a huge bag that was filled with dice of all kinds of colors. He had borrowed her some until she had bought her own. She shrugged. 

“I don’t need them, though.” 

“But you want them.” 

Veronica made a frustrated sound. She did want them. They were pretty. But she didn’t need them. John sighed, then chuckled and reached around her to grab the dice.

“If you won’t buy them, I’ll buy them for you.” 

She grabbed his arm quickly and held it tightly, eyes wide as he shook her head. 

“No! I can’t let you do that. I don’t need them, I’m fine.” 

John leaned in a little bit, smiling at her before he let his head fall against her shoulder and sighed. 

“Buy the dice, Ronnie. If they make you happy, buy them. Or let me buy them for you.” 

He quickly straightened up again, easily pried her fingers from his wrist and pushed the dice into her hand. She contemplated it for a long moment, then sighed and nodded. 

“Fine, I’ll buy them.” She grumbled. 

His grin was wide and he squeezed her shoulder. Veronica blushed and clutched the bag of dice in her hand as she followed John to where the paints were displayed. 

+++

Veronica straightened out her skirt and fussed over her hair for a moment before grabbing her purse and rushed downstairs. 

John’s car was already parked in front of her apartment and he was standing next to it, dressed in a nice shirt and pair of pants. Veronica’s heart sped up a little bit. She smiled, blushing when he returned the smile. 

“You look very pretty.” 

Her cheeks felt hot already and she absently brushed over the fabric of her skirt. He had surprised her when he had asked her for a date after one of their play sessions. It had been embarrassing how long it had taken her to form an answer but John hadn’t seemed to mind much. His face had been bright red but the relieved smile when she had said yes had been adorable. 

“You look good, too.” She said, gently fixing his collar. 

John drove them to a small but nice restaurant, holding open doors for her and asked before he took her hand. The food was good and she had worried they wouldn’t have anything to talk about but that wasn’t the case. They were chatting the whole evening and Veronica didn’t want it to end. John seemed to feel the same, drawing it out and only asking for the bill only when he really couldn’t hold it off anymore. 

“Do you want to go for a walk?” She asked. 

“Yes, please!” 

There was a park not far from the restaurant and John took her hand again- asking for permission again- and they walked along the pavel paveway. Veronica listened to him ramble about his latest engineering projects and it was fascinating even if she didn’t really know how most of it worked. John probably didn’t understand much about her curriculum classes but he listened anyway and asked questions nonetheless. 

At some point, they could not make any pretenses anymore and had to go back to the car to drive home again.

“I’d really enjoyed this evening.” Veronica said.

“Me too. Can- May I take you out again?” 

She nodded, bit her lip and tucked her hair behind her ear. Would John try and kiss her? She would like that, she thought. 

He didn’t kiss her, instead he got out of the car to open her car door and help her getting out. He did press a chaste, almost fleeting kiss to her cheek after bringing her to the apartment door. 

“Thank you for the nice evening.” He mumbled, a dark blush spreading over his cheekbones. 

She chuckled, ducking her head slightly and squeezed his hand, their fingers still laced together. 

“No, thank _you_. See you tomorrow for the game?” 

“Wouldn’t dare to miss it.” 


End file.
